"CHRISTMAS TIME TRAVELER" RETURNS SAFELY TO POST-12-21-12-CHRISTMAS EVE! (AGAIN?)

Merry Christmas, Everyone! And Happy Birthday , Mithra, you old fart (not the Son of God, but the God of the Sun- whose birthdate was lent to Christianity in order to nail down a day for the merry-making we know today to be Christmas) Christmas certainly does garishly mark the passing of a year for me and most Americans. Even New Year's Eve/Day doesn't have a marketing campaign that completely envelopes the senses the way Christmas does. We always seem surprised that Christmas is here again, and that it's over so quickly, and then we're quick to look forward to Spring and Summer. I remember teasing a friend, who was exhausted from the holidays at the start of the year, by saying, "Before you know it, it will be Christmas again!" I feel that just by repeating that phrase in my head now, I have managed to somehow skip those 360 days and here I am back on Christmas Eve. I time traveled! Even the same tree found its way into my living room, and if it wasn't for a few new ornaments on that tree I could almost assume I traveled back in time. Yes, Christmas is here again. Familiar holiday sights, sounds, and smells have been assaulting me for over a month now and I can only hope to make it safely back to my time machine to do it all again next year... or last year... or maybe on another planet...